Capacitors, such as metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) capacitors, are often associated with integrated circuits (ICs) to facilitate the provision of a steady supply of current to one or more parts of the circuit. Capacitors provide a steady supply of current to ICs and mitigate transient currents by, among other things, acting as a charge reservoir that steadily discharges stored current regardless of the transients that the circuit, or parts thereof, are exposed to, such as power to ground noise, for example. Since such capacitors separate or decouple one or more parts of the IC from surrounding noise, they are often referred to as decoupling capacitors.
It can be appreciated that it is generally beneficial to locate a decoupling capacitor as close to the (part of the) IC to be protected as possible. This is particularly true since switching speeds in ICs are continually increasing to allow electronic devices to operate faster and perform more complicated functions, and these increased switching speeds magnify a parasitic inductance within the circuit that inhibits the capacitor's ability to decouple noise and serve a steady supply of current. Additionally, this parasitic inductance generally increases as the decoupling capacitor is moved away from the IC.
Although desirable, it is costly to fabricate MOS capacitors as part of ICs since doing so lengthens and complicates fabrication processes and consumes valuable semiconductor real estate, among other things, for example. As an alternative, decoupling MOS capacitors can be operatively coupled to packaging that surrounds the IC. This, however, increases the cost of packaging and moves the capacitors away from the IC, exacerbating adverse effects associated with parasitic inductance. Accordingly, it would be desirable to be able to fabricate MOS capacitors in a cost effective manner that allows the capacitors to be operatively connected to integrated circuits so that they can serve as decoupling capacitors.